Actual charges are being filed against former Taft aide Brian Hicks. And the governor is still in the crosshairs.
COLUMBUS — A Columbus prosecutor said yesterday he will file criminal charges against Brian Hicks, the former chief of staff for Gov. Bob Taft, for not reporting stays at coin dealer Tom Noe’s Florida Keys vacation home at below market rates.Chief Columbus City Prosecutor Stephen McIntosh said his office is racing a judicial clock and has only until Friday to file the charges because of a two-year statute of limitations. Mr. Hicks left the governor’s office July 31, 2003.
The prosecutor said other former and current staffers from the governor’s office are also being investigated for a similar allegations of accepting gifts without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, as required by state law.
Mr. McIntosh declined to provide more details, or if the gifts came from Mr. Noe.
Mr. Taft is also under investigation by the prosecutor’s office for potential violations for not reporting free rounds of golf at the Inverness Club, the exclusive, U.S. Open-level course in Toledo, and possibly at other courses, sources also told The Blade yesterday.
If, at the end of all of this, it is determined that BWC money was illegally used to give gifts to Ohio decision-makers and Bush's reelection campaign, so help me, there better to be real hell to pay.